deathtocapslock | OOTP Chapter Ten: "Luna Lovegood"

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OOTP Chapter Ten: "Luna Lovegood"

* Harry wakes up late and has to rush to avoid missing the train. Apparently wizards have not yet invented alarm clocks.

* Indeed, so late is he that he apparently doesn’t have time to get washed.

* Such a pity that Ginny didn’t break her neck as she fell down the stairs; it would have been kinder than being turned into JKR’s favourite Mary Sue and then yoked to Harry for the rest of her life.

* Harry hates having to go with a guard. TBH I wouldn’t be surprised if the guard hate it, too. “Babysitting the Chosen One today, Sturgis? Bad luck. Try telling him your best friend was in Slytherin, he won’t try to speak to you after that.”

* “How Muggles can stand travelling without magic…” I doubt this is the intention, but every time a wizard talks about how difficult Muggles must find things without magic, they just end up looking really spoilt and entitled, a bit like people who wonder how anyone managed before TV and the internet were invented.

* Sirius scaring the local cats is a source of great entertainment to Harry. For a Christ-metaphor overflowing with love, he can come across as rather sadistic sometimes.

* If Sirius is going to go out with Harry, he should at least try and keep a low profile. Standing on his hind legs and placing his paws on Harry’s shoulders is not a very responsible thing to do.

* Once again, Hermione and Ron look nervous at telling Harry anything with even the slightest chance of upsetting him. Seriously, they should find themselves a better friend.

* Ron seems so defensive about being made a prefect. TBH I have to question Dumbledore’s judgement in giving the position to someone who clearly isn’t going to enjoy it.

* “‘I’m not Percy,’ he finished defiantly.” No, worse luck; Percy might actually have something useful to bring to the Trio.

* Luna’s here! :) Luna’s always been one of my favourite characters; her “I’m so weird act” may obviously be a way of getting attention, but it’s better than, say, bat-bogey-hexing everyone who annoys you.

* I wonder what it says about Harry that the only thing he can think of about Neville is that he once got a Remembrall five years ago?

* So what exactly is the point with Neville’s new cactus? I don’t think it appears at all later in the books. Is it just to give Harry an opportunity to angst about how Cho finds him covered in pus?

* Note how Harry’s embarrassed to be seen with Neville and Luna Lovegood. Normal teenage behaviour, but Harry’s not supposed to be a normal teenager, he’s supposed to be a Christ-metaphor, and Christ spent far more time with unpopular outcasts than he did with very cool people.

* Ginny waits till Cho’s gone before cleaning away the Stinksap. Could it be that she was intentionally waiting till Cho had gone to make Harry look bad in front of her, and thereby reduce the chances of her stealing away Ginny’s future husband?

* Of course Malfoy’s the Slytherin prefect, says Ron. After all, we can’t expect JK Rowling to come up with another Slytherin character to give the job to. Conservation of detail, and all that.

* Pansy Parkinson is “a complete cow”, according to Hermione. I’m still not sure what she’s done to merit the trio’s dislike, aside from being in Slytherin. Although in JKR’s mental universe, that’s probably enough.

* She’s also “thicker than a concussed troll”, apparently, giving yet another example of Slytherin seeming less the House of cunning people, and more the House of racist thugs. If Slytherin really were for cunning people, we’d expect members to have a fair degree of intelligence, even if it’s not the academic kind.

* Luna’s little sally into the conversation is enough to make Ginny stuff her knuckles into her mouth to stop herself from giggling. Either Ginny’s easily amused, or JKR is just desperate to make us think of Luna as a funny character, but cannot in fact write her as such.

* I like how Ron’s first thought is to use his position to get at people he didn’t like. Still think he was a better choice than Dean or Seamus, Dumbledore?

* I think (hope) that Luna actually is taking the Mickey here.

* “How Far Will Fudge Go to Gain Gringotts?” Quite far, if he’s sensible enough to realise that placing your entire financial system in the hands of a people who’ve consistently rebelled against you for the past few centuries is a rather bad idea.

* “Cornelius ‘Goblin-Crusher’ Fudge” is quite a cool nickname, I think. A pity we don’t hear him called it more often.

* Apparently it doesn’t occur to Harry that it might not be a good idea to antagonise the new Slytherin prefect.

* For that matter, given that the Trio’s got the better of Malfoy and Co. every time they’ve clashed, why do they apparently hate them so much? If anything, they should have come to look down on Draco, Crabbe and Goyle as being beneath their notice, and ignore them accordingly.

* Even though Draco’s got a much better reason to dislike Harry than Harry has to dislike Draco, he doesn’t give Harry a detention, even when Harry insults him in front of his friends. This seems rather inconsistent with Hermione’s report of power-mad!Draco bullying the normal students.

* Hagrid’s not here. Enjoy it while you can, chaps; he’ll be back with a vengeance in Chapter Twenty.

* Malfoy, being a bad guy, doesn’t have friends, only “cronies”. Because it’s impossible for anyone who doesn’t like Harry to have ordinary friendships with other people. Clearly.

* So wait, Dumbledore has a load of flesh-eating monsters pull carriages full of excited schoolchildren who can’t see them and don’t even know they’re there? Why haven’t there been any accidents?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

“How Muggles can stand travelling without magic…” I doubt this is the intention, but every time a wizard talks about how difficult Muggles must find things without magic, they just end up looking really spoilt and entitled
Not to mention this really drives home the whole thing about the word "Muggle" being a slur! As though they chose to be born without magic. Or as though they have magic and don't use it. ... Jesus, that really gets me! I would love to be around when one of these conversations have been going on!
"How Muggles can stand travelling without magic..."
"What makes you think they know what travel with it is like?"

I don't know what they want from non-wizards! They're silly if they don't use it or know about it, yet wizards are all in agreement about keeping their world from them!

Oh, but I suppose that was just added, as they said in RiffTrax, just in case we forgot they were magical. JK sacrificed good dialogue for the whimsy. Unless she goes around saying things like "I don't know how poor people manage without a private jet!"
Except she does know, since she knows what it's like to be poor... which just adds another level of "very interesting!" to how quick Harry is to adopt the titles and definitions of the superior class. All the while remaining "good" of course, and not going so far as to be like those evil elitist purebloods. Just a tiny bit of elitism is ok.

In that case, I'm not sure if it's a win or a commentary...

“‘I’m not Percy,’ he finished defiantly.”
Mmmm-hm. Ron feels nervous at the thought of his good fortune inspiring anger in someone and what's his first defense? "I'm not Percy"? Man, the evidence that the Twins' psychological torment has left lasting scars on Ron could not have been more obvious if he'd shielded himself and said "Please don't jinx me, Fred! ... I mean Harry. ... Shit, what'd I say?"

I wonder what it says about Harry that the only thing he can think of about Neville is that he once got a Remembrall five years ago?
I'm going to be wicked and remind you that the snitch-sized Remembrall was literally the only (positive) reason Harry got on the Quidditch team. Sure, Malfoy chucked it, but linking him in would be Malfoy contributing positively to Harry's life.

* I like how Ron’s first thought is to use his position to get at people he didn’t like.
Fred and George are somewhere in white lab coats nodding at Ron's development and making notes for the report. They are actually doctoral candidates and their dissertation is that corruption is a learned behavior, and since the wizard world doesn't believe in ethics, the experiment is perfectly legal. They'll submit their evidence as proof and it will cause a sensation in the wizard world. On one of their many book tours, Fred will say "It was difficult and many times I wanted to stop the experiment. My only means of coping was to go to Ron's room every night after he'd fallen asleep, kiss his forehead and tell myself that I was only doing this so that no child would ever have to go through it again."
*Happy thought*

* Indeed, so late is he that he apparently doesn’t have time to get washed.

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like takes a disturbing form in the magical world. Gryffindor sweat: the scent of heroism.

* Sirius scaring the local cats is a source of great entertainment to Harry. For a Christ-metaphor overflowing with love, he can come across as rather sadistic sometimes.

Foreshadowing of the PTSD Umbridge will suffer?

* If Sirius is going to go out with Harry, he should at least try and keep a low profile. Standing on his hind legs and placing his paws on Harry’s shoulders is not a very responsible thing to do.

What the hell happened to him between GoF and OotP? I never thought I'd say this, but I'm feeling almost sorry for the poor would-be murderer here. It's strange and unnerving.

* She’s also “thicker than a concussed troll”, apparently, giving yet another example of Slytherin seeming less the House of cunning people, and more the House of racist thugs. If Slytherin really were for cunning people, we’d expect members to have a fair degree of intelligence, even if it’s not the academic kind.

I remember reading a theory pre-DH (possibly on the HPN) that Voldemort had Horcruxified the Sorting Hat, corrupting its Slytherin selection criteria into what would make the best minions.

* So wait, Dumbledore has a load of flesh-eating monsters pull carriages full of excited schoolchildren who can’t see them and don’t even know they’re there? Why haven’t there been any accidents?

I got the impression that the Thestrals were carrion-eaters and scavengers rather than predators. They lick Grawp's blood from Harry's robes (which, now that I come to think of it, could be read as a Christ metaphor, though of course it's the blood of someone else wounded defending Harry, making it fitting for these books. Anyone interested in rewriting the Bible in JKR's style?) rather than scenting the blood on him and tearing him to pieces (alas), and are left outside the Ministry to scavenge in dustbins.

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like takes a disturbing form in the magical world. Gryffindor sweat: the scent of heroism.

Old Spice! Damn I love those commercials!

Foreshadowing of the PTSD Umbridge will suffer?

Or, don't forget McGonagall was a cat. Foreshadowing that Sirius was in love with McGonagall and chased her around the castle?

I really never got the McGonagall as a cat, there are just to many cat like creatures walking around Hogwarts. Hermiones got a cat, Mr. Filch has got a cat, McGonagall can turn into a cat and Umbridge is in love with cats and also possibly could turn into a cat if she has a animagus...Thats a lot of cats.

But I did kind of wish McGonagall and Umbridge would both be animagus cats...it would have been way more fun to see them transform and go at each other, a real cat fight would have totally been a win for the HP series.

What the hell happened to him between GoF and OotP? I never thought I'd say this, but I'm feeling almost sorry for the poor would-be murderer here. It's strange and unnerving.

Sirius became a big disappointment, Snape again, was apparently telling the truth about...hum...just about everyone...um, except Lily. (LOL)

I really never got the McGonagall as a cat, there are just to many cat like creatures walking around Hogwarts. Hermiones got a cat, Mr. Filch has got a cat, McGonagall can turn into a cat and Umbridge is in love with cats and also possibly could turn into a cat if she has a animagus...Thats a lot of cats.

Remember, Rowling's astrological sign is Leo, that may have something to do with it.

But I'd really liked to have seen a broader range of pets, magikal or otherwise, in the wizarding world. IMO, if Mrs. Norris had been a canine "ratter" such as a Jack Russell Terrier, it would have been much more interesting.

Something tells me that Rowling is not much of a pet person, because we don't really see animals that are solely pets, beyond Hagrid's menagerie. Hedwig, Crookshanks, even Scabbers, are utilized as tools, not associated with as loving and beloved pets.

One of the few pieces of magic in HP that doesn't work on the basis of pure plot convenience is the animagi and patronus animal form rules. The patronus takes the form of an animal which the caster ADMIRES. An animagus form is the animal which the animagus RESEMBLES. These are too different things. Umbridge liked long haired cats, but she is repeatedly and monotonously described as being toad like - all throughout Order of the Phoenix, with even more consistency than Harry is described as being angry.

Similarly, Hermione's patronus is an otter even though it is impossible to imagine a less otter-like personality than her's. Her patronus is the animal she admires the most even though it is very different from her.

I wonder what it says about McGonagall that she admires herself the most...

Maybe her Transfiguration skill is her source of happiness? The competent teachers, at least, genuinely enjoy their subjects for themselves.

Um, someone forgive me if I'm wrong but McGonagall's patronus was a cat wasn't it.

Her patronus is identical to her animagus form. Her animagus form is a cat with short hair and square markings around its eyes in the shape of her square glasses. Her patronus is the same cat. Hence she loves best the animal that symbolises her in the way Snape loves best the animal that symbolises Lilly. Lilly is symbolised by a doe because she was nothing more than James Potter's woman it would seem and James was represented by a stag.

Um, someone forgive me if I'm wrong but McGonagall's patronus was a cat wasn't it.

A couple of cats, IIRC. And she is a cat animagus.

Rowling tells us that one's patronus is based on one's happiest memories/thoughts, and that when a witch or wizard falls in love their patronus changes to reflect their beloved, who should now be their happiest memory/thought.

So I always wondered about young McGonagall, and who she may have been in love with at one time (and perhaps still is). Perhaps her beloved was also a cat animagus; or, as someone pointed out, perhaps McGonagall is in love with herself! LOL

Or maybe it's something as simple as Minerva having had a cat, or cats, as a beloved pet(s) and companion(s) when she was a child, which would make cats both her happiest memory, and a reason to want to become one.

Of course, female cats are known to be sexually promiscuous, so that raises some questions about young Minerva (and gives much fodder for fan fiction)! LOL

Lilly is symbolised by a doe because she was nothing more than James Potter's woman it would seem and James was represented by a stag.

The Lilly = doe thing doesn't work on multiple levels. Even if we ignore the misogynistic and insulting attitude that a women is defined by the man she's with. There is still no sense in Severus Snape seeing her as a doe.
He is in love with her so why would he identify her as a doe and as suche a natural "mate" for a man he hates?
Also, I may be wrong but, I don't think Snape had any idea that James was a stag.
The Marauders secretly become Animagi. So, why and how would Snape who loathed them find out that James' Animagus form was a stag?
And if he did found out wouldn't he told somebody about it? :/

My interpretation is that one's animagus form is basically inherent to one's nature, and that Lily would have been a doe if she had ever become an animagus.

Snape's patronus took the form of a doe because that was Lily's animagus form. He didn't have to know that Lily's animagus form was a doe in order for his patronus to take that form, just as Harry didn't have to know that his father was a stag animagus in order for his patronus to be a stag.

I've pondered a few theories on the whole Snape patronus doe.

I did at one time consider the theory of 'magic' manipulating the situation.

Sometimes magic seems to play this external force, maybe some might say god or something like that.

I've also thought that maybe magic more like balance or maybe even has some sort of physics or, I don't know, I'm not a scientist but maybe evil magic and good magic have a certain force and one can't outweight the other. Like when Voldemort killed Lily, and then when he goes to kill Harry, the balance of evil is tipped, causing the counter weight to swing back over to the good side.

So, sometimes it makes me think, Okay, Severus ends up with this doe patronus, we don't know when exactly he got it but either way it represents Lily.

If you look at the scene with Severus and Dumbledore, when Dumbledore tells Severus that Harry has to die. Severus uses his patronus. Severus doesn't use words to say he loves Lily.

In a way I wonder, nobody seems to trust Severus, nobody likes him much either. So, for Severus does HIM saying something make it believable or true.

But, him showing the doe patronus, he is giving this proof that nobody can really say is a lie. Magic makes it real and Severus shoots his patronus off in a way that seems like he is telling Dumledore. THIS is my proof, magic doesn't lie, Look at it.

So then I wonder, okay, What does Severus think of his patronus.

Does this actually prove to him that he loved Lily. As in maybe Severus might not really understand love - this is a guy who seems to have had little love and little understanding of it. BUT, he does understand magic.

So does the doe patronus even prove to Severus that he must love Lily...

So sometimes I wonder, IF magic is this external force, as with the OLD magic that Voldemort nudged when he killed Lily and tried to kill Harry. Could it be that 'Magic' also nudged Severus by giving him this patronus, giving him the belief that he did love Lily. Even when words fail the patronus seems to offer a more reliable voice to Snape's motives/feelings.

I like your musings. :) It's not really clear how much control you have over whom your patronus form represents vs. how much "magic" chooses that individual for you.

I had always assumed, and I think I heard it confirmed somewhere, that the Patronus and Animagus forms were supposed to actually be the same for each person. If Harry were an Animagus, he would be a stag, James's Patronus would be a stag, and so on. That only breaks down with the revelation that the Patronus changes in the case of unrequited love, which I assume was a later revision, like so many other things.

Ugh so it was more hasty revision in the later series. Like so much of the inconsistent rules of magic in the Potterverse.

Actually I think you were correct. Dumbledore's patronus form was a phoenix, I'm pretty sure, and you can't be a phoenix animagus.

I think one's patronus form is the animagus/animal form of the individual you see as your patron-- the person chosen, named, or honored as a special guardian, protector, or supporter, according to Merriam-Webster.

Dumbledore's patronus form was a phoenix, I'm pretty sure, and you can't be a phoenix animagus.

Is this explicitly stated anywhere? A phoenix sounds like the perfect animagus form for someone determined to live forever, such as Voldemort.

You know, I thought it was stated somewhere that one's animagus form couldn't be a magical creature, but I seem to have been wrong about that. All of the aniamgi that we know about in canon transform into regular animals, though.

>Sirius became a big disappointment, Snape again, was apparently telling the truth about...hum...just about everyone...um, except Lily. (LOL)<

Au contrare, Snape never said a word about Lily. Whatever he might think, his statements remain 100% accurate (well, apart from claiming that you can find a Kappa in Mongolia).

Whatever happened to Sirius Black, it happened quickly. It was only about 6 weeks between the end of GoF and the beginning of OotP for him. Not three years like for us.

/* “How Muggles can stand travelling without magic…” I doubt this is the intention, but every time a wizard talks about how difficult Muggles must find things without magic, they just end up looking really spoilt and entitled, a bit like people who wonder how anyone managed before TV and the internet were invented./

I wonder what would happen if Hermione, or another Muggle-born student, were to interrupt loudly, "Well, I don't know *how* wizards can stand writing with quills, living with no central heating systems, phones, computers, or post offices, as well as a bunch of other things, and how they can stand having no legal rights. You'd think that they were living in the 14th century or something."

/* Of course Malfoy’s the Slytherin prefect, says Ron. After all, we can’t expect JK Rowling to come up with another Slytherin character to give the job to. Conservation of detail, and all that./

Do you think that's the real reason why JKR made Ron a prefect? Because Harry was out of the question, Neville was struggling academically, and Dean and Seamus were minor characters?

/* Pansy Parkinson is “a complete cow”, according to Hermione. I’m still not sure what she’s done to merit the trio’s dislike, aside from being in Slytherin./

Well, to be fair, she was one of the Slytherins who met with Rita Skeeter and said bad things about the Trio. I think that she also insulted Neville in first year. But Hermione's insult and the sheer vitriol behind it suggest something personal between them, which is odd, since we haven't seen any scenes of them alone together where they've fought it out. Maybe Pansy is just supposed to be Hermione's "evil" counterpart, like Draco is supposed to be Harry's.

/* Malfoy, being a bad guy, doesn’t have friends, only “cronies”. Because it’s impossible for anyone who doesn’t like Harry to have ordinary friendships with other people./

Ironically, that only makes Draco look more sympathetic in HBP when he's dealing with so much pressure and stress, but has nobody to turn to, except Myrtle.

living with no central heating systems

Small nitpick - the Romans had central heating in the form of the hypocaust - a sort of cellar with a lit fire that heated the rooms above. It's possible that wizards stole the idea and modified it to work on every floor (Gryffindor and Slytherin's fireplaces are explained by their being high in the air and under the lake respectively).

But Hermione's insult and the sheer vitriol behind it suggest something personal between them, which is odd, since we haven't seen any scenes of them alone together where they've fought it out.

This feels like a "you're a woman, you know what we're like" moment - the "catty women" stereotype seems like the sort of thing a bad or lazy writer would go for when one female character dislikes another regardless of whether it fits her character.

But I'm pretty sure I remember the description of drafts blowing all through the castle, and everyone catching colds.

Ah, well. It's not like wizards have a good track record on intelligence.

Do you think that's the real reason why JKR made Ron a prefect? Because Harry was out of the question, Neville was struggling academically, and Dean and Seamus were minor characters?

I thought it was because no other boy could possibly work with Hermione. Ron she could boss around.

Pansy is revenge on a girl who JKR says bullied her in school.

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Well, she's pug-faced and doesn't get her man, so that's the worst destiny ever! What more do you want?

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(AND childish, AND pathetic - I mean, how old are you, Jo? Ten?)

Maybe I'm just dumb and not adult enough to get it, but if I was a writer and EVEN if I did make a character to resemble someone I hated, ya know, just to get revenge. There would be no way in HELL I'd ever tell anyone.

Because what you end up with is someone you hate getting some fame when they find out what you did.

I just find it rather curious for an adult to come up with an answer in an iterview that is something like...Oh I made this character to get revenge on the girls who were mean to me at school.

It's sounds kinda silly doesn't it.

I would think if I was a writer I wouldn't want to share my fame by suggesting I got inspiration from someone who was horrible to me.

Maybe I'm just dumb and not adult enough to get it, but if I was a writer and EVEN if I did make a character to resemble someone I hated, ya know, just to get revenge. There would be no way in HELL I'd ever tell anyone.

Because what you end up with is someone you hate getting some fame when they find out what you did.

Which is exactly what happened when she revealed that John Nettleship, her chemistry teacher, was the main inspiration for that nasty Prof. Snape.

Jo's 'revenge' sounds rather empty to me (AND childish, AND pathetic - I mean, how old are you, Jo? Ten?).

I was thinking the same thing, reading this thread.

Jo Rowling couldn't have been more bullied than *I* was in school, hell I had GANGS of girls targeting me, and it often was more than just verbal.

But I didn't give a single one of them a thought once I was out of school because none of them was worth me expending that much emotional energy on. I definitely wouldn't give any one of them validation by making them a character in a story I wrote, horrid tho the character may be.

And what's funny is that in the years immediately after graduation I'd periodically run into one of my ex-bullies, then another. And to a person, they all acted like a long-lost friend and wanted to be buddies!

Once I was in a certain organization, I'd joined a few months previously and had made friends there, we were jokingly referred to as "The Peanut Gallery" because we'd joke around and make funny comments to the group, etc.

One night, in walks a gal who'd been one of my worst bullies in school; this was now like 4 or 5 years since graduation. She'd just joined this organization but didn't know anyone, then she spotted me. Came right over and sat with me and my new friends, acted liked we'd been almost sisters, she actually started to suck up to me!

Over the following weeks she'd continue to sit with me at these meetings, and kept pressuring me that we should get together on our own, go out to discos and clubs and such on our own.

I was polite enough to her, but I DID NOT LIKE HER! LOL

This whole 180-degree turn that I saw in my ex-bullies showed to me what herd animals they all were, and once the herd was broken up, they were lost. But I did have to give them credit, for making *me* emotionally and intellectually independent.

I don't know if these ex-bullies thought I should be grateful that they were now extending what they considered a hand of friendship, when in fact it was the pathetic grasping of lost souls who'd never developed a healthy sense of self, and so they grasped at what they saw as a "steady rock" as they sunk.

And perhaps I *was* a "steady rock" compared to them...but not one of them had a decent personality, nor enough intellect to fill a thimble. I was never mean to any of them, I felt enough sympathy for them to spare them what they'd done to me. But there wasn't a one of them I wanted to be friends with.

And as I said, not one of them is worth me creating a character in their image! LOL

I think JK's actual words on Pansy were that she embodies all the girls who ever teased her at school. So really, Pansy was in the books just to say mean things, which of course meant she had to be ugly as well and get the occasional schoolgirl comeuppance.

Interestingly, the context I remember this from is a post-DH interview where JK was asked if Draco ended up marrying Pansy. JK's answer was very emphatic:
"No! God, it wasn't Pansy Parkinson. I loathe Pansy Parkinson. I don't love Draco but I really dislike her. She's every girl who ever teased me at school. She's the Anti-Hermione. I loathe her. Yeah, sorry! Sidetracked there by my latent bitterness."

By this I assume JK believes that women who were a bit unpleasant when they were young either don't deserve to get married, or don't deserve to marry rich men of the calibre of Draco.

Speaking of mean girls, in hindsight this is the first place I began to dislike Ginny. For all that she's Luna's "friend" and is allegedly "nice" to her, she has no qualms about calling her "Loony Lovegood" behind her back, even though she'll snap at anyone else who does the same.

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THIS.

Actually, the woman lies like a rug and I wouldn't take anything she spouts in an interview as anything more than an attempt to sound clever.

Pansy Parkinson is obviously Ethel Hallow from the 'Worst Witch' books. It's a school story, so that particular stock character is necessary for verisimilitude.

The Worst Witch books are old enough that Rowling might have read them as a kid. Not that she'd ever admit it. She carefully never admitted to having read any author who wasn't dead until she mentioned (I think) Terry Prachet and Philip Pullman.

You know, I think the interviews were the thing that really started me down the road of being an anti-fan. To see that an author that I had adored previously start saying such horrible and unlikeable things made me really start to question the worldview of the series in general. There were always things about it that bothered me (muggle treatment, anybody?), but I ignored it because I was young and believed that she was really writing a great story of good triumphing over evil. I loved Hermione at that time, oddly enough, but looking back on it she seems, like Lisa Simpson (another childhood hero of mine) to have been a miserable, self-righteous know it all. I have to wonder what I was thinking sometimes. The sad thing is that none of my friends seem to have realized this, so I probably just seem like a spoil-sport to them.

I also question the maturity of an author "loathing" their own character, since to me that implies an unwillingness to sympathize with them and thus be able to look through their eyes enough to make them a well-rounded, believable character. By no means am I an amazing writer myself, but at least I can sympathize with all my characters, even if I dislike what they do. To me, this is critical for making a story filled with living, breathing people. If one only focuses on the hero to the exclusion of everybody else, it comes off as one special person living in a world filled with cardboard cutouts.

Also, why is it Pansy that gets all of her hatred? If she is going to hate anybody, shouldn't it be somebody who is actually evil, like, uh... maybe Voldemort?

Sorry for the novel...

What's wrong with being a know-it-all? :p

Certainly people who actually know things are thin on the ground in these books...

There is a difference between knowing a lot and being a know-it-all, I think. Knowing a lot usually comes with a fair amount of humbleness because one recognizes how much that one doesn't know yet. Know-it-alls are naturally arrogant because they, by definition, believe that they know it all. ;-)

I know NOTHING, I am merely the messenger.

Now if someone can tell me what movie that is a quote from, they win the internet...for today.

Knowing a lot usually comes with a fair amount of humbleness because one recognizes how much that one doesn't know yet.

"Usually" being the operative word, I take it.

*Hugs the Sixth Doctor*

Yes, but the Doctor could get away with it because, well, he's the Doctor. Hermione is no Doctor. ;-)

So really, Pansy was in the books just to say mean things, which of course meant she had to be ugly as well and get the occasional schoolgirl comeuppance.

I can't really recall her doing anything mean. She just doesn't have enough screentime for it.

She laughed at Hermione when Draco made her teeth grow, clearly a horrible thing to do. While laughing at the fellow student who is transformed into an animal and slammed into the things repeatedly is perfectly o.k. /sarcasm

And once she said to Harry something like "Potter I heard that ________(insert Slytherin's quidditch player name here) will aim a Bludgers at you."

That's all I remember.

I think she also said nasty things about Hermione in one of Rita Skeeter's GOF interviews, but that's about it.

And she insulted Angelina's hair, but that was almost too childish to believe in a girl her age (not to mention really awkward, what with JKR trying to imply Pansy was racist by insulting Angelina's hairstyle without then ever bothering to show wizards particularly caring about Muggle-style human races again, being too hung up on failing at being very prejudiced against halfbloods and all).

Fudge and the goblins could have been such a cool surprise. Here we think it's just a wacky Quibbler thing, and then suddenly in DH they have to rely on Fudge's secret anti-goblin infiltration tactics to break into Gringotts, while feeling that it's ethically dubious! Alas, no.

I'll give Sirius a pass on standing up while in dog form, since quite a few real dogs I've known do that (one liked to hold people's hands and "dance") and so it wouldn't look particularly suspicious to me.

Wizards shaking their heads about how Muggles manage would be a lot more understandable, if still a bit snobby, if they actually did have better magical solutions for most things. But as we've all noticed, they apparently have no alarm clocks, no ballpoint pens, no internet, no phones, no television, no live theater, no novels, no radio dramas...

Wizards shaking their heads about how Muggles manage would be a lot more understandable, if still a bit snobby, if they actually did have better magical solutions for most things. But as we've all noticed, they apparently have no alarm clocks, no ballpoint pens, no internet, no phones, no television, no live theater, no novels, no radio dramas...

I agree. Something to keep in mind, though, is that some of the technology that we take for granted today was still in its infancy in the early 1990's, when the story is set, such as the internet, laptops, and cell phones. Television use had only been widespread for about 40 years. So wizards weren't quite as behind the times then as it seems like they are now.

True. But regular, non-cell phones have been around for ages, as has live theater and, well, literature. We know wizards have radio, so radio dramas (or even talk shows - don't they have anything besides Celestina Warbeck?) shouldn't be such a big leap. And unless the ww only started allowing Muggleborns in starting in 1991 - which we know they didn't, since as far as anyone knew Tom Riddle was Muggleborn - then Muggleborn kids had spent the last 40-ish years going, "Hey, guys, we have this thing called TV, you should make a magical version."

And in fact, once Fred and George get around to it, wizards get interactive virtual reality shows, so it isn't like wizards are completely incapable of inventing magical things we can't manage with technology yet. Why don't they have all sorts of awesome things we don't?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

OOTP Chapter Ten: "Luna Lovegood"

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